That’s an amazing looking lather. Well done
Mitchells Wool Fat Shaving Soap is no longer Tallow based
- Thread starter zoidberg
- Start date
Actually it was just me being lazy enough. The Kent’s are stamped on the underside label, which is non-existent on the MWFs.
Found this kitted in my stash of unopeneds like @brucered kind of drove me crazy to do.
Interestingly enough, it matches my Kent pictured earlier; both bought in London last November
Its like going to The Home depot during a hurricane warning.
Or Costco in 2020 to find toilet paper
First shave with MWF Tallow, the dreaded 8923 batch. I haven't shaved with MWF in years, not because I was afraid of it or had bad experience, I was using PdP, Haslinger Tallow and Proraso Blue for as long as I can remember.
2 pass. WTG, ATG, warm rinse, cool rinse, skipped AS to test post shave feel. No probable with disappearing lather during either pass. No redness. No glide or slickness issues. No issues to report at all.
First pass was good. Probably swirled for 30-40 seconds (I actually tried to count for the test) Second pass and lather was even better. Probably because I always give another few swirls on hard soap pucks before pass 2, with any soap. Post shave feel as I remembered. After the test shaves, I'll start using AS with it anyways.
I'll finish out the week with it, so 2 more shaves and then put it way until after my Tallow Tabac bowl.
This is the brush after applying the first pass lather. It's pretty much how I prefer my lather, dense, creamy, not a lot of volume. Placed down on puck after face lather, no staging etc.
You can even zoom in on the bristles, no bubbles at all.
2 pass. WTG, ATG, warm rinse, cool rinse, skipped AS to test post shave feel. No probable with disappearing lather during either pass. No redness. No glide or slickness issues. No issues to report at all.
First pass was good. Probably swirled for 30-40 seconds (I actually tried to count for the test) Second pass and lather was even better. Probably because I always give another few swirls on hard soap pucks before pass 2, with any soap. Post shave feel as I remembered. After the test shaves, I'll start using AS with it anyways.
I'll finish out the week with it, so 2 more shaves and then put it way until after my Tallow Tabac bowl.
This is the brush after applying the first pass lather. It's pretty much how I prefer my lather, dense, creamy, not a lot of volume. Placed down on puck after face lather, no staging etc.
You can even zoom in on the bristles, no bubbles at all.
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Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
So who still has the tallow version in stock?
Bullgoose recently posted in the vendor section, that they still have tallow in stock.
Camwrap @ 2 for $30+shipping
Bullgoose (ceramic bowl w/refill only)
Men's Room Barber Shop @ $13.75 + free shipping with $50 min purchase
Maggard Razors @ $15 (11 in stock)
and as far as I know, Amazon U.S.A.
AFAIK, these numbers are accurate as of this posting. I read that Amazon U.K. was still shipping tallow a few days ago, but for the most part, assume any European, Australian or U.K. vendor is shipping the palm oil based version at this time. This includes Kent.
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When it gets to the point that people start buying the ceramic bowls just for the tallow pucks they contain, you'll know it's crunch time.
I’ll just line up the extra ceramic bowl next to my Old Spice ceramic mugs
Will we see more Europian tallow based soaps reformalate their formulas in the near future?
Absolutely inevitable. companies doing business in the EU are scrubbing all ingredients that are illegal or objectionable. It isn't just tallow. As I mentioned in an earlier post, American Crew has reformulated its shampoos to add environmentally friendly ingredients.
With the way some people have had issues with the bowls you might be able to sell them on eBay
To borrow a quote from "The Mask," "...do little dogs pee on red brick walls?"
Yes, almost certainly. The large manufacturers will. There's only one or two left. Culmak is the last major U.K. shaving soap producer that hasn't discontinued tallow, yet. It wouldn't surprise me if they are already in the process of developing replacement formulas for the tallow based shaving soaps they make.
Derby and Arko in Turkey might be the last holdouts. They aren't part of the EU, yet. If they want to continue to sell in the E.U., they will be forced to reformulate, most likely.
There will always be some "artisan" tallow based soaps being made somewhere, but the writing is on the wall for the old "traditional" soap manufacturers, and has been since 2010 or so. When Trumper's, Art of Shaving, La Toya, Tabac, Lea, and all the others either switched to vegan formulas or stopped production entirely, it signalled the end of tallow in traditional shaving soaps. We're in the 'death rattle' phase.
50 years from now, hardly anyone will miss tallow. It will be kind of like Sperm whale oil. Nobody will care that it was a superior lubricant to anything made today, because no one will remember how good it was.
As an example, vintage Williams, some five reformulations and 100 years ago, was considered the best shaving soap in the world. The modern stuff is terrible in comparison, though people's opinions on it have improved since it was discontinued. Rose tinted glasses, nostalgia, and all that.
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...if the bread started being made with a bit of sawdust added once the strike was over, she wouldn't look so stupid would she? Especially if she liked the bread in the first place.
That's kind of how I feel about it.
If it was a coconut oil and stearate formula they switched to when they reformulated, I would be telling people to relax, it's probably not that bad. But they didn't. They switched to a palm oil base.
It might be terrific. And if it is, that's going to be shame, because they will have to reformulate it again in 7 years when the 2030 E.U. regs kick in. If they are smart, they'll do it sooner, rather than later. If we're lucky, they'll spend a year tweaking the recipe so we'll never notice the difference between it and the beloved tallow version, and this will just be an unfortunate blip on the radar.
Based on the stock at Connaughts, I think Culmak already make a palm oil puck that is sold under their own brand name. The fact that they are apparently still producing tallow soaps for other people does give me some small hope that those brands will be able to continue offering their tallow products for a little longer...at least, long enough for me to buy a few more!
They have already reformulated that one to
Sodium Cocoate, Aqua, Glycerin, Coconut Acid, Parfum, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Pentasodium Pentetate, Capry/Capramidopropyl Benaine, Paraffinium Liquidium, Zea Mays Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Benzyle Benzoate,Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool, CI 77891
I haven't heard good reports. Connaught still lists the previous version which was actually quite good
- Thread starter
- #579
From another forum I post on, someone bought this and said it was an abomination. The one before this one is supposed to be pretty good.
Vintage tallow based soaps like Old Spice have been out of production for years and are still highly desirable, I've seen a few sell on UK eBay for £50 at times.
I think I read something the factory that used to produce hard tallow soaps in Turkey owned by Evyap that made their tallow bath soaps was closed with production moved to Malaysia, that's where the palm oil comes from right. I used to be able to get the Evyap tallow bath soaps everywhere but they seem to have disappeared. I can buy a few of their palm oil bath soaps but I'm not a fan of them, they seem to disintegrate after they have been exposed to water for a few days.
Back to Evyap producing tallow shaving sticks, I believe it is only a matter of time until they switch from tallow to palm oil. The stocks of tallow Arko should be huge though, and it should be possible to get them for a while before they run out.
Good morning everyone,
I work here at Kent Brushes, and we are looking into this issue with our SB2 Shaving soap immediately. We contacted Mitchells on 31st May 2023 to confirm the rumours of the formula change in their own product and confirm the formula they were using for our branded soap still included Tallowate; they confirmed our soap was not yet affected as they did not have the ingredients in stock yet.
We are now sending the current batch away for testing, and I will update you with the results as soon as soon as we have them.
We appreciate your patience whilst we look into this problem,
We are disappointed that we may not have been given an honest reply when we checked this out last week,
Thank you for your understanding,
Kalie
I work here at Kent Brushes, and we are looking into this issue with our SB2 Shaving soap immediately. We contacted Mitchells on 31st May 2023 to confirm the rumours of the formula change in their own product and confirm the formula they were using for our branded soap still included Tallowate; they confirmed our soap was not yet affected as they did not have the ingredients in stock yet.
We are now sending the current batch away for testing, and I will update you with the results as soon as soon as we have them.
We appreciate your patience whilst we look into this problem,
We are disappointed that we may not have been given an honest reply when we checked this out last week,
Thank you for your understanding,
Kalie
